interpret r=-0.72

Question

A researcher wanted to see if there was an association between the number of hours spent watching TV and the students grade point average . He found r=-0.72 interpret the researchers results .

 

 

Answer 1

r is the correlation coefficient.  It is always between 0 and 1.  The fact that r is not zero means that tv time and grade value are connected somehow.  The negative sign means that as one goes up the other goes down.  The degree of how connected is measured by the magnitude or in this case .72.  ... which I would say is a pretty strong connection between the two, saying that the more tv you watch, the lower you can expect your grades to be with something like 72% accuracy.